Utilitarian

There's something that's been brewing a little bit in my brain lately (no, not beer). It took Monday's 7-4 loss to illustrate my point for me.

Sure, one could call Monday night's effort unacceptable (and I believe one did), but I think there is something else at play here.

As told by either Gary Cohen and Ron Darling, Snoop Manuel was asked about Anderson Hernandez and Snoop said that he wants to see what Hernandez can do at other positions. This has been a line of thinking that you saw in the minor league system, where players like Daniel Murphy and Nick Evans were made to play multiple positions. It tells me all I need to know about the Mets general idea of "player development":

We're grooming an entire organization of utility players.

Doesn't that seem a little dangerous to you?

Look, utility players are wonderful. It's nice to have a Bert Campaneris circa 1965 on your roster, or a Kevin Mitchell circa 1986. But to have a whole minor league system of utility players ... players worrying about learning three or four positions? No wonder they're all messed up in the head and need mental vacations. Heck, even David Wright needs a mental break and he's just playing third. No wonder it doesn't occur to Fernando Tatis that Trent Oeltjen might be taking second base on a hit to left. No wonder Murphy was on his way to the Bahamas on a bouncer over the pitcher's head so that Hernandez can throw the ball to an imaginary first baseman on a double play attempt.

There's a reason that the saying goes: "jack of all trades, master of none" ... least of all hitting. Nobody is mastering that, probably because everyone's busy learning how to be Bert Campaneris. Nobody gets less out of less than the Mets.

But that's looking at too big a picture. Obviously this team is done ... mentally, and physically. Even Gary Cohen is counting down the games ("just 50 more games, Ron.") You know there's trouble when Cohen, who loves baseball enough to sit in the stands and watch a game on his off day, is counting down the games. Heck the whole announcing team has resorted to schtick long ago when they started sword fighting and giving Ron Darling haircuts in the booth (and can we be sure that when Gary shot a t-shirt out of that gun that he didn't hit Frankie Rodriguez in the arm?) So can we really be surprised that it's come to this?

You'd be counting down the days too if you saw Doug Davis, having just been described as a "notoriously bad hitter", smack a single to center which Angel Pagan turned into a double (how come extra bases are only taken when Angel's in the field?) I'm guessing that giving up a hit to a notoriously bad hitter isn't quite the late night feeding that Mike Pelfrey had in mind.

Pelfrey, by the way, is playing third tomorrow for Wright. Because the Mets need more versatility.

Yo-Yos

"Keeping a yo-yo spinning while remaining at the end of its uncoiled string is known as sleeping. Sleeping is the basis for nearly all yo-yo tricks, the player first putting the yo-yo in a "sleep" before throwing the yo-yo around using its string. In competition, mastery of sleeping is the basis for the 1A division." -from Wikipedia, on yo-yo's

In major league baseball competition, the basis for beating the Mets is throwing your curveball and pulling the uncoiled string until the lineup, and half the fans, are put to sleep. Doug Davis, who has a WHIP of 1.62, held the Mets to six hits and three walks (two by Paul Lo Duca, and two in the eighth inning) with his major league curveball today in leading the Diamondbacks to a 4-1 win, and the first series win against the Mets by someone outside of the division (and fourth overall).

Obviously, the Mets caught Davis on a bad day...well, a good day for him. Davis had struggled with his control in May until his last game against Philadelphia when he didn't walk any batters in eight innings. Today, the curve reminded me of a yo-yo on a string, getting Met after Met to sit and stay like puppies at obedience school. Of course, for all of Davis' outs, the most important out of the day was the only one acquired by Tony Pena in the eighth...the one where Damion Easley had the bases loaded with two outs and grounded out to third base (after he barely missed a three run double with a grounder foul...I have my doubts about that foul call but it was indeed close) to end the only legitimate threat of the day.

And what makes me angry about that is...well, how many freakin' Tony Penas are there in this league? There's the shortstop (who apparently is known as Tony F. Pena even though he never hit a big home run against the Red Sox), there's the shortstop's father who shows up in all those old Dwight Gooden reels striking out and having his batting helmet fall off while falling to one knee. And now there's the pitcher...and I don't even know if he's related or not. I mean, I don't think so...but dude, can't you change your name? Anthony? Antonio? Jebediah?

Seriously, I'm old. I can't keep up anymore. More than one Tony Pena, just like more than one catching Molina brother, just tends to piss me off.